A document "intended to provide an initial reference point" for the October Synod of Bishops on the family was released Thursday at the Vatican. The document acknowledges that "the primary task of the church is to proclaim the beauty of the vocation to love," but there is little beautiful or inspiring in this document. If married life is as boring and joyless as this document, I am glad I am celibate ...

Ultimately, I find this all depressing - it appears the point of the survey and the coming synod was not to discuss the merits of teachings that have so badly failed among Catholics world-wide, but instead to double down on that failure. The church has decided that the lived experience of its members is worthless.

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(((The church has decided that the lived experience of its members is worthless.)))

With all do respect Crystal, no matter what lived experience members have add, it doesn't make them worthless.

We must remember that The True Foundation of The Catholic Religion is "Jesus Christ" and through His First Apostles, The Holy Spirit leads Saint Peter and long story short, members have no choice but to follow in GOD's Foot Print because GOD is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

But the surveys - all of them that have been made public, from the US to the UK, Germany and Sweden, Ireland, Latin America, and Japan - all had a majority of respondents saying that they disagreed with the church on contraception, divorce, same-sex marriage, cohabitation, etc.

Instead of listening to what a majority of lay Catholics world-wide have said and re-examining the doctrines in that light, the church has instead decided we're all to dumb to understand the teachings. That's what I mean by saying that our experience doesn't matter to the church.